10 comments:

Wonderful site. As a pedestrian and habitually jaywalking Copenhagener, I've always hated these hellish devices and their masters with a vengeance, and thought bicycling an extraordinarily undignified mode of transport. It seems I'll have to look at them with fresh eyes.

I've been spending the Saturday perusing back issues, and you, sir, are an artist. The bird view picture of the girl walking her bike across a smudged zebra crossing is (like many others) Magnum material, and no mistake. Also, your portfolio includes some of the hottest pictures I've yet seen, and that says a lot.

Reading the comments, I'll wager you draw more tourists to Copenhagen than the combined efforts of Wonderful Copenhagen and the Ministry of... uh, whatever ministry is currently in charge of foreign propaganda.

I've travelled a great deal, and I never really thought that Copenhagen biking was a 'culture' - which I'm sure you'll be delighted to hear - rather than, well, lots of people biking in the same place.

Up until now, when I've been coming home from abroad, I've merely noted with a sigh of satisfaction that I'm back in the capitol of beauty. (I've never been to Tromsö)

But much as I hate bikes myself, I realised, reading the comments, that you are doing some really good work, you are actually changing peoples minds, inspiring them, which is more than most newspapers or television stations manage to do.

Now, here's the drizzle on your gorgeous parade, sorry: PLENTY of Copenhagen bikers choose speed over grace; I did that myself in my biking days, a real terror I suppose I was. To a pedestrian waiting at a T-intersection, you learn very quickly that most cyclists only adhere to the traffic rules if it's to avoid being hit by a truck. At T-intersections, i.e. where the cyclist don't have to worry about crossing motorvehicles, they simply ignore the light, and you'll just have to wait for a hole in the river bikes before you can cross.

And also: you are making Copenhagen looking incredibly beautiful and sexy, while it's acutally a murky hellhole from mid-October to late April - don't you dare deny it. Biking in a snowstorm is NOT fun, it's something you do because that's what you do to get to work.

And I see a lot more lycra, helmets and speed bikes in Copenhagen when I perambulate than you seem to. Okay, that's not a real criticism, you have found a theme that amazingly seems inexhaustible, but still: speed demons are part of Copenhagen biking too.

Now, what I would like to see on your blog, is a series of (chic, female) people that don't use the handlebars, leaning relaxedly back in the ultimate cool cycling pose. I'm sure they would be a great inspiration to your security conscious overseas guests.